


When In Need

by shadowglove88



Series: The Adept [7]
Category: Bones (TV), Fringe (TV), NCIS, Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkward Dates, Banter, Chemistry, Companionable Snark, Compatibility, F/M, False Identity, First Dates, Flirting, Mental Instability, Past Abuse, Snark, Soul Bond, Supernatural Elements, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 15:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18995797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowglove88/pseuds/shadowglove88
Summary: With Lionel Luthor dying in the hospital, Chloe is in desperate need of a replacement Bonder before she goes insane and has another bond forced on her.Things have a way of working out though, considering a candidate, whom she hadn't even considered real, finds her when she needs him the most.





	1. Chapter 1

"No Mister President, I haven't had time to go over the candidates you had the Secretary of Defense handpick." Chloe leaned hard on the table, hand on her forehead, eyes closed as she listened to the Head of the United States remind her that her choosing the members of her Division was a priority. "I am aware of that, Sir, but I have some ongoing cases that need my full-yes Sir-I know Sir-Mister President..."

He wasn't listening, and Chloe had to bite back her loud groan and press her hand hard against her eyes.

"Sir, I have to respectfully disagree." She shook her head. "The cases I am working on, and the different protection methods in which to keep both your family and those of the Cabinet as safe as possible, have priority over adding personnel to this Division." She closed her eyes tighter. "Yes, more hands would technically get the job and research done quicker, but not when I have to train each and every new recruit. They will only slow me down. I ask that you trust me on this issue and let me handle this as I see fit."

The President had a few words to say about that, touching on another topic she didn't want to discuss right now.

"No Sir, there hasn't been any progress on that specific field." Chloe pulled her hand from her now open eyes and tilted her head back, gazing at the ceiling, begging any holy entity out there to sever the phone lines or do something so she didn't have to discuss her romantic failures with the President of the United States of America. "Dr. Spencer Reid of the Behavior Analysis Unit has been going over the candidates that have poured in through many reliable sources, not only federal and naval but also from colleagues at the Jeffersonian, and he's been weeding through them by compatibility. So far that has narrowed the… males… down quite considerably but I have yet to make a connection with any of the ones I've gone on… compatibility tests… with." She flinched. "Yes Sir, I meant dates."

The blonde stood from the table and took in a deep breath, listening as the President not so subtly began to talk about one of his own nephews who was in the Marines.

She sat down again, about to collapse, not sure she could take this much longer.

There was a knock on her door.

"Please hold a second." Chloe covered the receiver. "Come in!"

Gloria, one of the receptionists, cleared her throat as she peeked her head inside. "Excuse me, Special Agent Sullivan, but there's a gentleman downstairs who wishes to see you. He doesn't have an appointment or clearance, but he says that he has urgent business to discuss with you and refuses to go away until you see him."

"Has he hinted to what this 'urgent business' might be?" Chloe frowned, unable to think of who could have 'urgent business' with her given the fact that most people outside of the NCIS organization didn't even know she existed.

"No Ma'am." Gloria shook her head. "Would you like me to have security remove him from the building?"

And lose the only chance she had to end this horrible conversation with the President?

No way in friggin hell!

"No, Gloria, thank you. I'll go see who he is and what he wants personally."

"Yes Ma'am." Gloria nodded and left.

Taking in a deep breath, Chloe removed her hand from the phone's mouthpiece and spoke as calmly as possible, trying not to let her tone waver and betray the fact that she was right on the edge of doing something drastic. "Mister President, I will need to get back to you on that very intriguing proposition as there is someone who has come to see me about urgent matters. Yes sir, I will let you know if this is anything pertaining to the supernatural balance of our country. Of course… I… I kn… your nephew  _does_  sound like a nice man… I agree." She closed her eyes tightly. "If you would like to forward his stats to Dr. Reid-Yes, yes Sir, you  _could_  consider Dr. Reid as the first recruit of the Division, though he wouldn't be a part of the permanent staff, instead he'd come periodically… Yes Sir. I will Sir."

Finally, he hung up.

Chloe hung the phone and let out the groan she'd been wanting to since the moment the President had called her. She shook her head and stood, straightening her suit before leaving the office, heading out passed the cubicles and such. A wave to Tony and McGee heralded her passing through as she headed towards the elevator, entering and pushing the lobby's button, watching the doors slide close, feeling the slight jolt as the machine started making its way downwards.

The journey to the lobby was quick and peppered with annoyingly catchy musical ditties, and when she made her way into the lobby she found herself humming one of the last ditties that'd played in the elevator. Annoyance filtered into her yet she pushed it aside, gaze scanning the room, wondering which of the men was the one with the urgent matter to deal with...

...and then she froze, eyes wide.

No.

No!

It couldn't be!

She couldn't be having a hallucination again!

Not here in front of everyone!

Not so soon after the last one!

The man froze, eyeing her with as much surprise as she did him, before coming towards her.

"Chloe Sullivan, NCIS," he murmured, stopping just short of entering her personal space as he gazed down at her. "So you were telling the truth."

"No…  _no_..." Chloe whispered, shaking her head, looking up at him in horror. "I can't be having another one now. Not another one. Not here in front of everyone!"

"Hey, sweetheart." As usual, the way he said that endearment made it sound somewhat insulting. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not a hallucination?"

"That's exactly what a hallucination would say!" She hissed at him, annoyed by the fact that he was making her have an insane moment in front of others.

"If anyone's a hallucination here, darling, it's you," he replied, leaning in closer. "I knew you always seemed to manage to escape whenever I turned my back for a second, but that trick you played last time? You disappeared from right under me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out her clearance, waving it in her face. "Misplaced this?"

Chloe's eyes widened as she saw the clearance she'd thought had been lost, and snatched it from him, eyeing it in shock. "You're… real?"

He smirked.

Looking around her, Chloe shoved the clearance into her pocket and grabbed his arm, nodding to one of the security guards. "He's with me."

The man let himself be led into the elevator, eyeing her just as she eyed him, both with narrowed, curious gazes. He followed Chloe out of the elevator once they reached her floor. Tony and McGee looked up, eyes widening in surprise to see Chloe with someone. The men exchanged curious looks, and Tony leaned forwards as they passed their workstations.

"Anything we can help you with, Special Agent Sullivan?"

Chloe sighed, knowing that Tony and his blasted curiosity wouldn't allow them to pass without comment. "Not at the moment Special Agent DiNozzo, but if that were to change I'll contact you immediately."

Tony pouted, obviously not liking being left out of the loop.

McGee sent Chloe a wordless, worried look.

She smiled at him, letting him know everything was fine.

He smiled back and nodded, going back to whatever he'd been doing before.

As Chloe and her guest walked away, the  _not_ -hallucination leaned towards her. "Are you sleeping with them? Because they're very protective of you."

She shot him a glare. "No, I am not sleeping with them."

"Hmmm." He looked over his shoulder at the guys in question before returning his attention to her, following her as she reached the small hole that was her office. "This is… small."

Chloe sighed, closing the door behind him and going to sit behind the desk. "Sadly I'm being moved to a bigger office no matter how much I fight it." She motioned for him to sit, and when he did, she eyed him. "I just can't believe you're real."

He frowned, leaning forwards. "You really thought I was a hallucination, didn't you?"

She nodded, running her hand over her head. "So, in the lobby, you said the last time I… visited you… I left my clearance with you?"

He nodded, frowning. "Mind telling me how exactly you did that?"

"I teleported," she whispered, running her hand over her head. "There were never any mentions of this as a possible side-effect in the manual."

"Manual?" He frowned deeper. "What manual? What sort of experiments are the Navy conducting that could end up with teleportation as a possible side effect? That's entering some very serious fringe science."

Oh, it had nothing to do with science at all.

But why this guy?

Why was she teleporting towards him?

According to him she'd apparently teleported to him all over the world, which meant that for some reason she was like a heat-seeking missile when it came to him.

"What's your name?" She finally asked. "Considering we've apparently met more times than I can count, it seems somewhat silly that I still don't know your name."

He paused before clearing his throat. "Pedro King."

"Mr. King." Chloe clasped her hands in front of her and leaned forwards on her desk. "How long are you going to be in the United States?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"Because I'm going to have to cordially ask you to extend that stay until this can be sorted out," she replied honestly, eyeing him with curiosity. "You see, I wasn't even privy to this side-effect. I thought I was hallucinating, and your appearance has changed things drastically."

"Look sweetheart, I have business deals that can't be left halfsies, okay?" He announced. "I just came here to get some answers. Like why you can teleport and why you're bugging me."

She didn't know why!

But she had a suspicion.

A knock sounded at her door.

Chloe sighed, turning towards it. "Come in."

Abby and Ziva entered, Abby blinking at Pedro and Ziva narrowing her eyes at him. Obviously Tony had sent the girls to check out the situation and report back to him.

"I'm sorry Special Agent Sullivan, we didn't know you had company," Ziva declared.

Bullshit.

The beautiful brunette went to Peter. "Special Agent David, who might you be?"

While Pedro stood and shook her hand, Chloe took the opportunity to pick up her clearance with a plastic glove and pass it to Abby, whispering: "Check for fingerprints and get me everything you can on him."

Abby nodded, picking up the clearance by the gloves and rushing away while Ziva continued to play distraction for Pedro.

"Is there a reason you came to see me, Special Agent David?" Chloe finally broke it up.

Ziva turned to her and smirked, facade dropping now that her back was to Pedro, the older woman obviously not getting the situation and mouthing 'he's cute!'. "The matter can wait." With that she left, closing the door behind her.

Great.

Chloe leaned against the door, hand to face.

The group thought that Pedro was one of her many 'candidates'.

"Why do I feel like the new boyfriend getting interrogated by the family and friends?" Pedro wanted to know with dark amusement.

"Because they think you're my date," she replied with a sigh, going back to sit behind the desk with a groan. "How embarrassing."

He chuckled as he shook his head. "You hiding a boyfriend from the family? If so, you should just tell them it's me, they seem to like me."

She sent him a glare as her computer beeped. The blonde clicked on the email from Abby, and her eyes widened when she saw that the older woman had already found out a lot about her newcomer… like the fact that he name was not Pedro King. "Well, I don't know how they'd feel about you being my boyfriend, Mr Bishop, considering your record. Although the recorded IQ of 190 is impressive."

Peter Bishop went still, eyes narrowing.

"High school dropout, misfit, and nomad who hasn't kept a job longer than two months." Chloe went over the information. "You've been a wild land fireman, a floor sweeper at a meat packing plant in Tennessee, a cargo pilot, and… oh, this is impressive." Her smile was genuine as she read this part. "A college chemistry professor, a job you acquired by falsifying a degree from MIT. You even managed to have papers published before you were exposed as a fraud. You've been arrested seven times and owe a remarkable amount of money to some guy who legally changed his name to Big Eddie." She looked up at him, surprised. "You've had run-ins with NCIS before, when a friend of yours was killed and you were a suspect."

Peter looked away, frowning. "They found the real killer."

She eyed the man in front of her, wondering what it was about him that had triggered her apparent ability to teleport.

Was he a candidate? Could he be the bonder she was looking for? Was this the 'Mystery of the Bond' that she'd heard so much about?

Whatever the reason was, she was being told that this Peter Bishop was important, and she would be a fool to let him go.

"How about dinner, Mr. Bishop?" Chloe tilted her head slightly, eyeing him. "I'll answer any question you have and you can answer some of mine."

"Why bother when all you have to do is type a few keystrokes and get all the information you need?" He raised an eyebrow.

"A computer can't tell me what I need to know, Mr. Bishop." She stood. "You name the restaurant and I'll pay."

He eyed her, before standing as well, smirking. "What sort of gentleman would I be if I let you pay?"

She couldn't keep the smile off of her face.

"I'll pick you up at eight outside of your house," he declared, going towards the door. "Wear something dressy."

"You haven't asked me where I live." She called as he opened the door.

Peter turned to her and winked. "You're not the only one with friends who can dig up dirt on others." He slipped out of the door and headed back towards the elevators.

Chloe watched him go and smiled to herself.

So far, this Compatibility Test was going  _very_ well.


	2. Chapter 2

"This is utterly ridiculous!" Chloe hissed, glaring at the NCIS agents gathered in her father's home. When news of her dinner with Peter Bishop had gotten out (and it'd gotten out quickly) not only had he been researched by  _every single person_  in her small group of friends (Ducky sending Palmer up to Abby's periodically to check for updates) but they'd all decided that they had no other course of action than to crash her meeting-which they were  _all_  calling a 'date'. They even had a game plan. Since Ziva, Abby, Tony and McGee had been seen by Peter they were thus 'compromised', Ducky and Palmer would go to the restaurant, bugged, and be conduits of information for the others, who'd be in an unmarked van outside.

"Chloe Chloe Chloe," Tony placed an arm around her shoulder. "This is not ridiculous in the least bit. We're just making sure he keeps his hands to himself in the restaurant. I know more than a few men who'd use the cover of the table to crop a feel."

"You wouldn't be talking about yourself, would you?" Ziva threw at him suspiciously.

" _Me_?" Tony gasped in utter horror, looking way too innocent and insulted. "I'll have you know I'm a  _perfect_ gentleman!"

Chloe snorted.

He gasped at  _her_ , obviously hurt. " _Chlo_! When have I  _ever_ -?"

"Christmas party." She declared with a smirk, slithering out of his hold and going to look at herself in the mirror once more, trying to figure out what to do with her hair. "You were so drunk you kissed half of NCIS. Me included." She smirked. " _Palmer_ included."

" _What_?" Tony looked sick. " _Lies_!"

"Oh no, I've got pictures!" Abby assured him with a cheeky grin. "I'll bring them to work tomorrow."

Tony, paler than they'd ever seen him before, sat down. "I'm never drinking again."

Ziva grinned, evilly amused by his utter despair, as she went to Chloe and helped fix her hair in a simple yet elegant style. She lay her hands on the younger girl's shoulders and met her gaze in the mirror with a reassuring smile. "You'll be fine, Chloe. And if you need anything, we'll be in the van."

"I can go on a date without everyone as backup, you know," Chloe assured her, though she rested her hand on Ziva's with a smile.

"So you're admitting it's a date?" McGee questioned.

" _McGee_." Abby slapped him up the back of his head. "Let her be."

Thankfully, her father wasn't having anything to do with this plan. He was down below in the basement, working on his newest boat. Of course that showed he was stressed about the situation, but thankfully he took the stress out on wood and didn't make  _her_  life any odder, unlike the others, who  _swore_  tailing her and having her know they'd be spying on  _everything_  would be  _reassuring_  and not downright  _creepy_.

"He's here!" Abby squeaked in excitement at the window. "Hurry hurry hurry! Up up up!"

Laughing at Abby's excitement, Chloe grabbed her purse and allowed the girl to usher her to the door, opening it before Peter had a chance to even knock.

With his hand raised to do just that, he blinked for a moment before he smirked. "Excited, were we?"

She blushed in embarrassment, stepping out and closing the door behind her. "Lets just say I was anxious to leave the house."

Peter cast a glance towards the windows, his lips twitching in amusement as he placed a hand at the small of her back and led her towards his car. "So I take it we're being watched?"

"Like hawks." She nodded.

He gave her a curious look before opening the passenger's door for her, and closing it once she'd slid in. The man walked over to his side of the car and slid in as well, slamming it shut. "You're very protected, Miss Gibbs. Or should I call you Miss Sullivan?"

So obviously he  _did_  have friends who were good with computers.

She smiled, shaking her head as he started driving. "I go by Sullivan."

"You know, your records are  _very_  well guarded," Peter informed her with a tone which was part intrigued and part impressed. "My friend is the best hacker I know, one of the best in the States, and your files were so encrypted all he could get out of it was that you were raised in Smallville as Chloe Sullivan before suddenly leaving and coming here to Washington D.C. with your real father, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. The whole working for NCIS doesn't even pop up."

"Good." She smiled. "I protected those files myself."

He sent her another look as they took the corner and joined the main road. "Teleportation  _and_  expert hacking. The mystery thickens."

She flinched, looking out of the window. "You're taking this all incredibly well."

"I grew up on  _weird_." He shrugged, mood dimming.

"You mean your father." Chloe remembered reading up on him.

"I would rather not talk about Walter," Peter declared immediately, voice letting her know to stop with that line of conversation immediately.

"Okay, no fathers," she agreed, not really wanting to talk about her father drama either.

"So…" Peter cleared his throat. "I know I said you could pick the place, but in the spirit of not having to eat while being stalked-because I have a feeing we're going to have observers to our meal-why don't I pick the venue?"

He was a stranger and could very well be a murderer for all she knew, but she  _so_  didn't like the idea of eating while Palmer and Ducky watched and reported back to everyone in the van.

The eighteen year old smiled and decided to take a chance. There had to be a  _reason_  she'd teleported towards Peter all those times, and it couldn't have been to be murdered. "Okay, surprise me."

He grinned. "Now, to lose our tail."

At those words Chloe gazed behind them to see the unmarked van not two cars down. She shook her head and leaned back hard against the seat, palm over her face in embarrassment. "I swear, they're usually more subtle than this."

Peter chuckled, the sound deep and highly amused, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Hold on to something!" And with that he swerved onto the next lane.

Chloe grabbed onto what she could and a peel of shocked laughter escaped her lips as the escape began.

* * *

"Are they very pissed?" Peter asked with a crooked grin, completely unrepentant before he took his first bite out of his jumbo hotdog, earning a giggle from an old woman with a large sketchpad who was drawing something while seated on a bench situated by a light post.

"Oh, yeah." Chloe disabled her cell phone's tracking abilities, as she had with his earlier, and turned it off, having already called her friends to let them know she was fine and able to go on this "mission" without "backup".

Peter grinned brightly at the news that he'd managed to piss off a whole team of NCIS agents and took an extra large bite of his hotdog.

Chloe laughed and shook her head at him before taking a bite of her own hotdog. They were definitely overdressed for a walk in the park while eating this sort of food, but she kinda liked it, liked how informal this Compatibility Test was, and how relaxed she felt as they made their way towards a bench opposite a lake. "It's a good hotdog."

"Benny's hotdogs are always the best," Pete informed her before he blinked. " _Tell_  me this isn't the first time you've had Benny's hot dogs! You're  _from_  DC!"

"I'm from  _Kansas._ "

"Well, you  _live_  in DC," he corrected himself. "You  _must've_  had one of these before!"

Chloe shook her head as she sat down on the bench and stared at the water. "I don't really have much time to go out. I'm usually at school, or at work, or at home." She took another bite and chewed slowly, realizing that she really didn't have a life. "Mostly at work though. Now that I think about it, I've slept in that office more times than I realized."

"That's a small office."

She laughed. "Everyone keeps saying that! But I  _love_  that office." She sighed, her smile disappearing. "The boss wants to upgrade me to a bigger office, something with a view."

"The sadist."

And just like that her smile returned, laughter even accompanying it as she slanted him a sideways look. "I guess I'm being ungrateful, aren't I? Others would kill for something like that."

"Yeah..." He chewed and swallowed. "But then you'd have to arrest them."

She hadn't been this continuously amused in... She couldn't remember how long. "True."

Peter eyed her before he shook his head and took in a deep breath, his gaze directed ahead of him "So, you said you'd answer my questions."

Chloe nodded as she looked ahead of her as well and took another bite of the hotdog.

"How old are you?"

She blinked and swallowed her chewed bite. "Not the first question I thought you'd ask." She tilted her head. "You know how old I am. You've read that on my file."

"It's got to be wrong though." Peter frowned at her. "No way does NCIS have an  _eighteen_  year old working as a  _Special Agent_  and is about to promote her to an office  _with a view_."

"I'm a  _Very_  Special Agent." She raised an eyebrow.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Which brings me to my next question." He pointed his hotdog at her. "Why is the Navy conducting teleportation experiments on high-school kids?"

"They aren't." She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm just...  _very_ special."

"So this is a  _natural_  thing with you? You're just... 'born this way'... a la Gaga?" He raised his eyebrow.

She snorted in amusement. " _No_." The girl took in a deep breath. "And that brings me to  _you_."

Peter blinked. "I'm confused."

"Not surprising, I do that to people quite often." She licked her lips and wrapped the tinfoil around the rest of her unfinished hotdog as she rested it on the bench between them. "When I was a minor-."

"You mean yesterday?" He quipped.

She glared at him. "This is not easy for me so I would be grateful if you didn't mock me."

"Sorry." He appeared genuinely repentant. "Please, continue."

Chloe licked her lips. "When I was younger I was tricked by an older man into being a part of something I really didn't understand. I thought I was helping people, and on the surface I  _was_ , but then he told me of a way I could help more, of a  _ritual_  that had to be performed to do so that would tie me to him, and I trusted him completely at that point so I agreed blindly because it would help me help others and that was all I wanted to do. I didn't realize..." She faltered.

Peter's face had gone completely emotionless.

She looked away. "I was his prisoner for two weeks after that. I only barely managed to escape but have been linked to him ever since, and now that he's dying in the hospital I've been suffering repercussions because the...  _bond_... he forced on me is weakening and needs to be transferred to someone else. It's why my friends thought you were a candidate for a Compatibility Test today and were checking you out so thoroughly."

"Compatibility-a date." Pete caught on quickly. "Why do you need to find someone who is compatible for you? Why is that relevant for this bond transference?"

"You're taking this in stride and not questioning my sanity."

"Sweetheart, you  _teleported_." He raised an eyebrow.

"Right." She nodded, able to see how that could open his mind to other aspects of her story.

Peter suddenly froze, his eyes narrowed. "Considering the fact that you need to go on a date and be 'compatible' with the person you bond with... How does one cement a bond with you?"

Chloe glanced away.

He hissed and stood up. "How old were you when that bastard-?"

"It doesn't matter." She hugged herself, suddenly feeling very naked at this moment and vulnerable.

"And I made fun of your age." He ran his hand over his face, visibly disturbed. "Jesus." He paced in front of her, agitation in his every step. "What I don't get though, is what does this have to do with you teleporting to  _me_?" He then froze and turned to her. "Wait a minute."

Chloe took in a deep breath. "I know that-."

"Look, I'm really sorry, your situation sucks, but I'm saying this as much for you as for me when I say that I am  _not_ the guy you want to transfer that bond to!" Peter's eyes widened as he held out his hands.

His rejection wasn't surprising and yet it still stung. "I don't want you to bond with me forever. I just need you to be my temporary bonder until I can find my full-time one. Just bond with me, stay with me until I can find someone to take over the bond permanently, and then you're free to go."

"Look lady, this isn't my problem."

"But  _Big Eddie_  is." She hadn't wanted to play this card and yet wasn't too nice not to.

Peter narrowed his eyes. "What are you-?"

"I'm  _saying_  that I'm not asking you to do this for  _free_." She stood as well and faced him. "I'm  **saying**  that you take on my bond,  _temporarily_ , and I will see that all of your debts are paid off in full."

He frowned. "You don't-."

"I have direct access to the President of the United States of America. He  _likes_  me. I can make this happen." She took in a deep breath. "Peter, I'm not asking you to take care of me for the rest of  _your_  life, I'm just asking you to help me save  _mine._ "

He narrowed his eyes. "What do you-?"

But she didn't hear whatever he was asking her because the moon suddenly began to wail at her, forcing her plaster her hands over her ears in order to drown out the loud screeching as she dropped to her knees. She could feel warm liquid coming from her ears, which were now ringing from the loudness, and when she pulled her hands away when the screaming stopped they were covered with blood.

Peter knelt in front of her, saying something, but she couldn't hear him, couldn't hear anything but ringing.

Chloe reached down and dug her fingers into the dirt, her fingers tracing designs into the humid soil against her will as equations flew in front of her eyes rapidly. She needed to get them out-out of her head! Her fingers hurt from how hard she pressed them into the soil but she continued to work, desperate in her attempts to get down what she was seeing, what only  _she_  could see.

Peter wasn't with her anymore, he'd probably freaked out and left. She couldn't find it in her to blame him. This couldn't've happened at a worse time. How was she supped to convince anyone to bond with her if she kept having her freak-out episodes more and more often?

Her fingers began to bleed.

Suddenly Peter was back, the large sketchpad the old woman had been using in his hand. He knelt in front of Chloe and grabbed her hand, yanking it out of the ground and placing it around the pen in his hand, guiding it to the paper.

Immediately her hand began to sketch the equations and designs in her brain, tears falling freely down her pale face, the girl closing her eyes tightly, unable to look at him right now.

The feeling of the page flipping ever so often meant that Peter must've been keeping a track of when the designs would overload the page, and he would change it over to a fresh, empty page for her to continue on.

He was patient.

Finally,  _finally_ , it stopped, and Chloe was left shivering and crying, with that ringing in her ears that left her blind and deaf to the world around her as she kept her eyes firmly shut.

Something warm wrapped around her shoulders.

The blonde opened her eyes, confused.

Peter, now jacket-less, sighed as he stared at her, mouthing something.

She pointed to her ears and shook her head.

He frowned and eyed the dried blood before he closed the notepad and helped her to her feet.

She realized she was wearing his jacket around her shoulders and made to take it off and pass it back to him. She was dirty from kneeling on the ground and bleeding, and getting dirt on her hands-.

Pete shook his head and placed the jacket firmer around her shoulders.

She whispered a 'thank you' since at least  _he_  could hear.

Pete ushered her towards the car, waved a thanks to the old woman (who looked very worried), and helped Chloe in, who was highly embarrassed.

The girl rested her forehead against the glass and closed her eyes tightly, the ringing still loud in her ears. The tap on her shoulder caught her off guard and she jumped as she turned to face Pete, who eyed her in concern and lifted a written note:  _ **What just happened?**_

"Nothing." She looked away and closed her eyes as she leaned her forehead against the glass once more. "Sorry. Just take me home please."

Another tap on her shoulder. And then another when she ignored the first.

Chloe let out a sigh as she turned to face him, reading the note. "I'm full of shit?" Despite it all she chuckled and looked up at him. "You're such a gentleman."

He made a face and began to scribble again before showing her the note:  _ **Is this bond related?**_

She licked her lips. "I told you... I get... let's just say I go all "Beautiful Mind", okay? Lionel is dying and I don't have anyone to shift that bond to and my body-especially my _mind_ -isn't handling that so well."

He frowned and wrote something down.  _ **Why don't you just bind one of the guys from your office?**_

Fair question. "They're all either in love with someone, or just not compatible with me."

He raised an eyebrow and mouthed three words she  _did_  get: ' _And I am?'_

She raised an eyebrow to him. "I  _teleported_  to you."

He sighed and looked away.

"Again, it would only be temporary, I don't want to be stuck with someone who doesn't want to be stuck with me either." She licked her lips. "Just...  _think_  about it. Okay?"

He gave a little nod and started the car.

The drive home was made in silence.

* * *

Peter Bishop didn't know what exactly he was supposed to do.

On one hand his instincts told him to get the hell outta Dodge. This was a clearly another insane person who wanted to latch onto him, and he'd had enough of crazy people who felt they needed him to save them. But on the other hand,  _this_  insane person was  _much_  cuter than his father. And damn it, when he'd seen her there, kneeling in the dirt in her pretty dress, bleeding, clearly in pain and distressed as she wrote in the dirt with her nails, he'd felt sorry for her. He'd thought she was crazy as hell, but he'd felt sorry for her. This wasn't something she deserved, it was something that had been done to her by some insane, perverted old man.

Peter had done some digging after he'd left her at her father's house (the father who she'd only barely managed to keep from shooting him when he'd dropped her off in the state she'd been in) and had managed to make a connection. He was almost certain he'd figured out who the bastard was who'd done this to her. It might be a long-shot, but maybe not. He had a feeling the guy was none other than Lionel Luthor. She'd let the monster's first name slip in the car, and Peter knew she was from Smallville, and from there it was easy to trace that Lionel had been her adopted father's boss... and that Lionel Luthor was now on the brink of death.

Lionel Luthor. Millionaire, philanthropist, sociopath, cultist, rapist and pedophile.

Peter felt sick to his stomach.

The girl had said she'd been held hostage for  _two weeks_.

He ran his hand over his face. He'd seen enough of the evils of this world to figure out what had gone on during those two weeks.

If Peter did this, if he helped this girl, not only would he be dealing with her mental instability, but he'd be dealing with the aftermath of  _that_. She hadn't come out and said it but he'd figured out that to cement this deal he'd have to sleep with her. Was it really worth it?

The guy leaned hard against the wall.

Then again, this  _was_  only temporarily,  _and_  he'd be helping her  _and_  himself. She said she'd make his debts to Big Eddie disappear. That alone should really make him consider this offer.

Peter sighed as he looked up at the ceiling, Chloe's face flashing before him as she cried, despair scrunching up her features.

The man growled as he clenched his fist and drove it back into the wall behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

"He wasn't even that cute." Ziva folded her arms over her chest and jutted her hip out defiantly.

"Liar." Chloe rested her forehead against her desk, voice muffled. "You specifically said he was cute."

"I... was having eye problems that day." Ziva hurried to defend herself.

Abby reached out and placed her gloved hand on top of Chloe's head softly. "Some guys are into the freaky, Chlo. He might've secretly found it hot."

"Not him. Okay? And he was the only guy I went out with who was even  _close_  to passing the Compatibility Test." Chloe hated feeling sorry for herself, but today was not a good day at all. "I'm  _never_  going to find a Bonder by the time Lionel bites the dust." She finally looked up at them, a red spot on the middle of her forehead from where she'd been resting against the desk. "That bastard's gonna die and some demon like Azazel's gonna come and claim me."

"Don't say that." Ziva slammed her hands palms-down on the table. "We'll call John in if we have to."

"Gibbs is gonna  _love_  that." Abby's lips twitched.

Even Chloe could find that somewhat amusing. "I love you two."

The two women smiled. "Back atacha."

Ziva and Abby's pagers went off.

Ziva looked up from hers. "Gotta go."

Abby made a face. "Me too, some evidence just came in that I need to go over."

Chloe nodded and shooed them away. "Go solve non-supernatural cases."

"You know we will." Abby gave Chloe a thumbs-up as the girls left.

Chloe waited until the door closed to lean her forehead against the desk once more with a groan. "I could do with a good murder right now." Her phone rang. She eyed it. "I didn't mean it." The blonde reached for the phone and brought it to her ear. "Special Agent Chloe Sullivan."

"Top of the morning to you my fair lady."

She snorted in amusement. "Booth, your British accent is  _appalling_!"

"That was probably because it was supposed to be  _Irish_." He sounded affronted. "And I've been told it's  _angelic_."

She rolled her eyes. "So, to what do I owe this call, Oh Angelic One?"

He snickered. "Angela found a new candidate she is  _sure_  has an aura that will match yours."

Chloe, once more, dropped her forehead to the surface of the desk. "Just kill me now and put me out of my suffering already."

Booth continued to snicker, completely unsympathetic to her cause. "She's drawn up charts and everything."

"She  _hasn't_!" Her voice was the sound of horror personified.

"Oh, she  _has_." He assured her. "And Bones has gotten into it as well, giving her advice and such despite at first declaring that we should stay out of it as it wasn't our business. But then  _Angela_  turned her over to the dark side by reminding Bones that back in the day the whole 'marriage arrangement' or 'matchmaker' thing was a big deal, and from an anthropologic point of view-."

"Stoooooop it!"

He snickered once more before he took in a deep breath. "Lionel's taking a turn for the worse."

She licked her lips. "You're keeping an eye on his health."

"Of course I am."

The blonde smiled softly. "You're a real sweetheart, you know that?"

"I am not!"

She smiled larger at the affront in his tone. "I'm  _fine_."

"So that episode you had last night was exaggerated?"

She sat up straight in her seat and blinked, shocked. "How do you-?"

"Let's just say that I have eyes and ears in that department." He was trying for an air of mystery.

She narrowed her eyes. "You've intimidated Reid into telling you everything he finds out, haven't you?"

He sputtered. "It isn't intimidation! We've cultivated an inter-departmental network of communication!"

"But how did  _Reid_  find out?" Chloe wanted to know. "I haven't told him anything yet."

Booth paused. " _He_  has eyes and ears in that-?"

She leaned back hard. "McGee ratted me out. I can't believe it."

"How did you-?"

There was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal the last person she would've expected. He smiled. "Hey."

" _Peter_?" Chloe's eyes widened in shock as she straightened in her seat. "How did you-?"

"I told Gloria I was your boyfriend. She remembered me from last time-head's up that she's going to be grilling you about our 'relationship', but if the way she kept eyeing my butt has anything to say about it, I'm sure she approves." He looked around as he closed the door behind him. "You really  _should_  accept the offer for a larger office, by the way. A view wouldn't kill you."

She stared at him, utterly confused. "Is that so?"

"I've had many offices with many views, you've seen some of them." He smirked as he plopped down onto the seat opposite hers. "I'll wait for you to finish your conversation."

Chloe had forgotten all about Seeley, and her eyes widened as she brought the phone back to her ear. "Uh, Booth? I'm going to have to call you back, okay?"

"Is this the guy from last night?" Booth wanted to know. "Reid said that from what he heard about your connection with him this guy might turn out to be a dark-horse candidate." There was a pause. "I'm not too sure what that means, but-."

" _Seeley_." Chloe raised an eyebrow.

"Fine." Booth cleared his throat. "I'm reporting this back to Reid though." And with that he hung up.

Chloe groaned as she brought the phone to her forehead, took in a deep breath, and then hung it back onto the receiver and turned her gaze to Peter Bishop. "I can't believe they let you back in here."

"Oh, I had to get this," he flipped a Visitor's Pass that was clipped to his leather jacket, "as well as an escort to the door." He gazed around her small little room once more, critical, before he returned his gaze to her. "Not even a picture?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What are you? A home decorator?"

He smirked crookedly. "Not even close."

"Could've fooled me," she mumbled, self-conscious about her little cubbyhole all of a sudden.

Peter opened his mouth.

Chloe's pager went off. "I'm so sorry." She looked down and gazed at the address. "I have to go, this is official business." She looked up at him apologetically.

"That's fine." He nodded as he watched her stand. "We can talk later."

"Okay." She stood and grabbed her things. "I'll walk you out."

* * *

Chloe made her way towards the isolated park, which had been cordoned off, Vance and his men having kept the people from coming anywhere close. Vance wasn't usually in the field for cases, but she found that when it came to the ones she dealt with she usually met up with him on scene, especially whenever her father was busy on his own cases and didn't know she was on hers.

"Hey Director." She moved towards where he stood over the covered body. "We're a little on the heavy side with the law around here, aren't we?" She didn't like so many people around her crime scenes and he knew it.

"Its a heavy traffic area, it took this many of us to keep people from trespassing and contaminating anything." He motioned her closer as he knelt down and uncovered the body.

Chloe knelt next to him and peered under at the mutilated mess beneath. "I see."

Vance nodded. "What's the verdict?"

Chloe looked up at him as she rested her hands on her knees. "My 'professional opinion' is that public should be informed that there's a definite chance of toxic chemicals rising from the ground. There should be a quarantine area and there should be only a  _couple_  of men holding the perimeter  _very_  far from here and they should be in  _hazmat_ suits." That should be enough to keep any curious person from trying to get a closer peek at what was going on.

Vance nodded. "That can be arranged."

"Thank you." She smiled and dropped her large bag a good distance from the body, where she was sure it wouldn't bother any evidence. She put her hair up into a high pony tail before slapping on a pair of medical examiner gloves. She then pulled out some tweezers as well as some evidence bags and cups for anything she found on the body. Ducky had been giving her lessons on medical forensics during her free time, and while she wasn't an expert on the subject she was the only thing close to a medical examiner that her 'division' had.

She watched as the men moved away, left her completely alone, before she uncovered the body and stared at the horribly mutilated remains. There was no way that any human or animal had done this, it was no wonder why she'd been called.

Pulling on a surgical mask in case she breathed in some sort of spore or something, Chloe began taking pictures of the body and everything around it, putting everything the NCIS team had taught her to good use. It was moments like these in which she got why the Pentagon was so insistent that she prioritize getting the team together. Things would go so much faster and smoother if there were multiple people who knew their jobs and were good at them, but she couldn't take the time to train people, and to be honest, she confused people too much. It was one of her mortal sins. Also, the thought of putting together a team of strangers was terrifying. It made much more sense to just continue the way she had for so long now.

Finishing with the pictures, Chloe went to examine the body.

The flesh was torn to pieces, muscles and organs falling out, bones wrapped around bones or just ripped out of their sockets. In fact, the man had died when his arm had been yanked out of its socket and shoved down his throat. Whoever had killed this guy had really been pissed off at him.

Her mind was already working, going through different pictures and texts, calculating the strength that would be needed to rip a man's bones out of their sockets like that, as well as have claws to tear through flesh and organs. Another factor was that there didn't seem to be anything that had been consumed so this wasn't a crime that had been committed so that the creature could eat. It seemed more and more like something personal-like a creature that could  _reason,_ which thankfully helped her brain with the eliminating process because already she was getting a horrible migraine as those pictures and texts flew passed her eyes in rapid succession.

Suddenly the images stopped. Her mind needed more information, more variables, to continue through the shifting process.

"Remind me not to piss off whoever he did."

Chloe jerked in shock and turned to see Peter Bishop standing behind her, hands in his pockets as he stared down at the body. She yanked down her surgical mask, her voice high and breathy. " _What are you doing here_?"

"I said we'd talk later, didn't I?" He asked innocently as he knelt down next to her to get a better look. "That's nasty."

"I thought you meant later as in  _tonight_!" She snapped in shock, hand to her rapidly beating heart.

"You thought wrong," he informed her.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I was curious to see what the Navy had an eighteen year old teleportation expert doing for them." He made a face at the body. "Not what I expected." He turned to face her. "I  _also_ expected more actual teleportation and less use of public transportation to be involved."

"Duly noted." The blonde licked her lips. "How did you get passed-?"

"The guys putting on hazmat suits?" He looked highly amused. "Easily. They were putting on  _hazmat_  suits. That doesn't afford them much visibility."

She narrowed her eyes further. "You do realize you're not supposed to be here, right?"

"You do remember my long police record, right?" His grin was charming, annoying, but charming nonetheless.

She went for a different tactic. "Did the fact that the they were putting on hazmat suits not make you doubt the smartness of coming here without one on?"

"You don't have one on," he pointed out.

She opened her mouth and then closed it, not able to find a good answer for that one.

"So what exactly do you do for NCIS?" He eyed the mutilated remains. "This guy doesn't look old enough to be in the Navy. Unless you think the  _killer_  was Navy?" He raised an eyebrow. "First teleportation, then something that can do  _this_. What sort of experiments are the government  _conducting_?"

She raised an eyebrow back at him. "Smartypants, I told you  _why_  I teleported. No government conspiracy was involved in that.  _Or_  this." She gazed down at the body. "I think." She shook her head. "Anyway, you shouldn't be here. You could get arrested. You  _should_  get arrested." She looked back up at him. "Why am I not arresting you?"

"I'm very handsome," he informed her.

"No you're not." She hated the fact that she was smiling at him right now.

A twig snapped somewhere in the bushes.

Chloe and Peter looked up immediately, the blonde pulling out a gun and training it on the noise, eyes narrowed.

Peter's eyes widened on her.

"NCIS!" She yelled, aim firm. "Come out with your hands where we can see them!"

Suddenly something shot out into the sky from the bushes: shadows mixed together as one, twirling as if dancing.

Peter narrowed his eyes on it. "What is that?"

Chloe observed the mixture, her brain immediately shoving aside everything that had to do with the case that it'd been previously assimilating and instead tried to decipher this new mystery in front of her.

Peter leaned in towards her and mumbled: "I don't think it's going to give itself up. You might have to try being more authoritative."

She sent him a little glare before she returned her gaze to the phenomena. "Are you  _always_  this annoying?"

"Yes." He gave her a crooked smile. "Do you still want me as your Bonder?"

"I'm beginning to  _seriously_  reconsider."

He imitated getting shot in the heart.

Despite the situation she laughed. "We have a UFO right in front of us and you're joking?"

"A UFO?" He chortled in disbelief as he threw out a hand in the direction of the thing. " _Really_? You want to go that far?"

"It's unidentified, flying, and an object." She kept her gun pointed at the thing. "If I remember correctly, that's what UFO stands for,  _not_  for  _'alien_ '."

"Well, if you want to be that way, then ' _alien_ ' is derived from the Latin  _alienus_ , meaning 'stranger' and/or 'foreigner', and wasn't actually originally meant for little green men from  _outer space_."

Her eyes widened as she took her gaze off of the thing to stare at Peter incredulously. "You're impossible."

"No, I'm correct."

"You're  _this_  close to being 'accidentally' shot, and then arrested."

"I'm getting arrested for being shot?" He blinked, although his smirk was killing his attempt at looking innocent and confused.

"There's a shadowy flying thing over there! Stop distracting me!" She turned back towards the thing, only to find it gone. Chloe cried out as she turned back towards Peter and slapped him on his chest. "You made it disappear!"

"Ouch!" He rubbed his chest. "Sweetheart, this is abuse."

"I'm not your sweetheart." She bent back down on her knees and took in a deep breath as she decided to examine the body once more. "Keep an eye out in case that thing comes back. You made us lose it."

"Oh, so now I'm  _not_  going to get arrested? Or shot?"

She sent him a glare. "Don't tempt me."

"Alright, alright." He smirked, hands up in submission.

Chloe shook her head and yanked back on her surgical mask before she started with the examination, but not before motioning to her bag and the extra gloves and mask she kept on her in case anything happened to the ones she usually wore.

"Were you  _serious_  when you said it wasn't smart to come here without a hazmat suit on?" Pete wanted to know, pulling on the gloves and the mask.

"Little late to be wondering that, isn't it?" Chloe knew she was being mean, but she was still annoyed that she'd allowed him to distract her like that.

Peter came to stand next to her and gazed down at the body, apparently unbothered by the sight of the mutilated mess.

"Why are you here?" She eyed a fragment she'd removed from the body. "What could've been so important that you couldn't wait until tonight to talk?"

"You know about Walter." His voice was muffled by the mask.

"I thought we weren't talking about your father." She looked up at him.

"We're not. We're talking about me." Peter frowned. "If I did this temporarily in exchange for my debts being cleared - haven't you considered that you'd need a Bonder who is exceptionally - and don't get insulted here - mentally stable and strong?"

"Yes, I  _have_  considered that." She eyed him before her gaze returned to the fragment. "Like you said: this is only temporary. My permanent Bonder will have no form of mental illness in his family, even if the sickness isn't hereditary."

Peter was silent as he shoved his hands into his pants pocket.

Chloe tilted her head to the side as she noticed something, discarding the fragment she'd been examining into a sealed evidence bag before she reached into the man's intestines, which were flowing out of his body, and pulled out something that had been embedded deep within. Her mind worked a mile per second as it rearranged the material it'd shoved to the back of her conscious due to the appearance of the shadows. Once the priority was set, it once more began sifting through possibilities and discarding options now that she had this new piece of information to help her narrow things down. "Hmmmm."

Peter blinked and knelt next to her to get a better look at the object. "Is that… a  _press-on nail_?"

"Welcome to my world, Peter Bishop." She didn't even look away from the nail as she put it in another evidence bag. "It would probably be better for you to leave."

"With dancing shadows and press-on nail wearing- _something-_ out there?" He snorted. "Not a chance."

She looked up at him. "Would you like me to walk you to the safety zone?"

He glared at her hotly. "I'm not worried about  _my_  safety."

She stared at him somewhat lost before she blinked, understanding. "Oh."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow at that.

"It's just that I'm surprised." She lowered her head and fought the blush she could feel rising up her neck. "You don't have to worry about me, everyone else does all the time and have taught me how to take care of myself." She smiled softly as she tapped a gloved finger to her temple. "And this is all I need to be a step ahead of this." She tilted her gaze back up at Peter. "Plus, I'm not really in danger." Nope. As the Adept she was far too valuable for anyone to actually let something happen to her, especially when she was so close to needing a new Bonder. There were too many things and people out there who wanted to force a bond with her once the time came that she knew she'd be fine… Until Lionel died, of course. If she hadn't found a new Bonder by that time things would get ugly.

"You can't know that." Peter made a face. "The shadow-."

"Oh, right, that." She pursed her lips. "I still need more information to calculate that, but I  _do_  know that it's a completely different entity than the thing that did this."

"How can you be so sure?" Peter wanted to know.

She tapped her temple again. "Its body mass is solidified and while it is subject to molecular and physical transmutation it does not ever become an non-corporeal mass." She then froze and realized she'd done it again, she'd gone on in her weird way that confused people and made them look at her weirdly, and she hadn't even-!

"So you're saying that whatever did this is a shapeshifter but that that ability does not include becoming a bodiless mass of shadows."

Chloe's eyes flew open in shock as she stared at him, her heart racing, her voice soft and shaken when she spoke. " _That's_ _ **exactly**_ _what I'm saying_."

Peter nodded, as if what she'd said was something a kindergartener would've understood. "Teleportation and shapeshifting." He let out a sigh. "This is a lot to take in."

"You're doing incredibly well." She was still shaken.

He flashed her a grin. "Gotta look cool for the ladies."

She fought the blush extra hard as she looked back down at the body in an effort to calm herself.

Suddenly an electric force erupted around them, visibly doming over them and trapping them inside.

Peter stood, eyes narrowed. "This dome looks  _a lot_  like those shadows did."

Chloe kinda wanted to kiss him for how well he was reacting to all of this, but she merely cleared her throat and stood as well. "I agree."

The man knelt back down, yanked out some blades of grass from their roots and tossed them into the dome, watching them burn up into crisps. "So. Still sure this isn't what killed the guy?"

Chloe nodded, eyeing the dome thoughtfully.

Peter sent her a sideways glance. "You're loving this, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm not." And yet she turned her back to him so he couldn't see the fascination on her face.

This was  _definitely_  something new.


	4. Chapter 4

"I can't believe you're just going to continue examining the body." Peter leaned against a nearby tree and made a face at her. "We're  _trapped_."

"Exactly." She was elbow-deep inside of said body, trying to find anything else that might be of help for her to figure out exactly  _what_  type of shapeshifter they were dealing with.

Peter shook his head at her, looking a little green as he eye the way she "desecrated the remains" as he'd called it earlier. The man finally turned his gaze away from her resolutely. "I just think that you should be more worried by the fact that we're trapped and our cellphones don't work-or affected by the fact that you've got your hand shoved in that guy's guts."

"His stomach, not his guts." She turned to look at him. "He was torn open, ripped apart. We already found  _one_  clue in him, and I'm sure there has to be more, somewhere."

Peter palmed his face. "This is not the way I planned on spending my evening."

"You'll probably be spending the night too, if we don't figure out what this dome is or how to bring it down." Chloe motioned with her chin towards her huge backpack. "Make yourself useful. I brought a tent with me. Put it up."

Peter removed his hand from his face. "Why did you bring a tent?"

She raised an eyebrow. "This wouldn't be the first time that I have gotten trapped somewhere. Why do you think I lug that thing around? It's to make sure I have everything I need to survive comfortably while I'm stuck."

Peter moved towards the backpack and unhooked the material case tied to the back of it. "This looks like it'll be a very small tent."

"It is." She returned her attention to the dead body. "If you can start a campfire that would be nice too. Nights out here get chilly."

"Anything else, your highness?"

She paused and thought it over. "No. I think that's it. I have anything else we might need in my backpack so you don't have to do anything else."

He chuckled darkly. "I'm beginning to see why you work alone."

She sent him a curious look. "How so?"

He blinked as he stared at her. "You know what? Forget I said anything." He then went ahead to try and assemble the very small tent they would be sharing if this went the way Chloe predicted it would and they ended up having to spend the night here.

That left Chloe more time to examine the body without any interruption, and she did so, her fingers feeling deep within the body as she searched for anything the killer might've left lodged deep within the victim. And her fingers found it, coming across a sharp object hidden behind a lung. She carefully extricated her arm and stared at the object in her hand, an eyebrow raising as she realized what exactly she was holding. "There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it?"

Peter looked up from the tent he was trying to assemble. "I remember that. It was from the ancient civilization of Sumer, right? It was one of the earliest examples of a riddle."

Chloe looked up at him in shock, not having expected him to answer or to even know what she'd been talking about.

"If I remember correctly, the answer was: a school." Peter turned his attention back on the tent as he began stringing up the top to one of the stronger branches of the tree above him. "What prompted ancient riddles?"

Chloe watched him for a moment as he fastened the top and went to work attaching the bottom of the tent to the ground. "This. I found it inside of the victim."

Peter turned towards her once more and frowned as he came closer, eyeing the blood-covered thing. "A ring?"

"A school ring, actually. And from the engraving on the front, I assume it belongs to Nagual Academy." She looked up at Peter. "It's a real uppercrust school for girls."

"First a press-on nail and now a ring from a girl's school?" Peter raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me that a  _teenaged girl_  did this?"

Chloe put the pin in an evidence bag and turned her gaze to the body. "If you have any better explanation for how this got behind his lung I'd love to hear it."

Peter opened his mouth.

Movement up ahead showed Tony and Ziva hurrying towards them. The others must've heard about her case and her father had sent those two to keep an eye on her.

Chloe hurried to her feet and threw dust on the dome, revealing to the others how the dust crackled on fire for seconds, and stopping the two before they could get too close.

Tony and Ziva's mouths were moving but Chloe couldn't hear a thing.

"There's some sort of sound-proofing on this dome." Peter returned to securing the bottom of the tent to the ground. "I noticed it earlier when a flock of birds flew overhead and yet I didn't hear a sound."

Chloe hurriedly grabbed a couple of the evidence bags and went to the barrier, holding them up for the two to see. She mouthed "Nagual Academy" as she held up the bag with the bloody ring.

Tony looked confused.

Ziva, though, nodded to Chloe and mouthed the question on if she was alright.

Chloe gave the woman a thumbs up.

Ziva smiled and nodded once more before grabbing Tony and heading back the way they'd come.

Tony stumbled as he was half-dragged and sent Chloe a wave.

She waved back and then turned to return to the body.

* * *

Peter had to admit, even if only to himself, that he was fascinated. Sure, watching that girl stick her hand inside the body as if it was nothing was gross, but this whole situation was, well, it was creepy as hell but he was curious as well. Chloe was so nonchalant about the whole thing that it was obvious that this was a day to day thing for her, and he realized that if he became her Bonder things like this might become the norm for him. That was both terrifying and exhilarating. And the best thing was that it would only be temporary, which meant that he didn't have to worry about his  _entire life_  becoming a zoo - and yet he'd still get to stick his nose further into this strange and fascinating world of hers.

He was almost tempted to accept her proposal, and the realization shocked him.

Starting the fire was the best way to keep himself busy and yet still be able to watch Chloe without it being obvious. He eyed the shadows playing over her body as she strained her gaze visibly in the darkening light. Once he was finished with the fire he went to her backpack and checked inside. Sure enough the prepper had a battery-operated lamp in there, and he smiled in amusement as he stared at it. When she said she came prepared she really did. He turned it on and took it to where she was. He knelt down besides her and lifted the lamp so that the light would be cast on the remains at a perfect angle.

She looked up, eyes wide, almost as if shocked that he was still there, as if she'd forgotten he'd been around, and while a part of him wanted to be insulted at that the huge smile she gave him kept any negative feelings at bay. In fact, as he stared down at the girl smiling up at him, half-bathed in shadows and yet eyes shining with the light, her smile so large and honest, he found himself gulping back a completely different sort of feeling, and it completely took him off guard.

She didn't verbalize her gratitude, merely returned to what she'd been doing, and he found he was relieved. He kept the light over her and watched her in fascination as she continued her investigation, although he found his gaze sliding from what she was doing and concentrating on her face more times than not.

Movement outside the barrier caught his attention and Peter noticed that the two agents from before were back, the female watching with a small smirk and the male watching with brotherly concern. "Your friends are back."

Chloe looked up at that, clearly having been completely consumed with what she was doing. He could tell why she needed someone to look after her. "Ziva, Tony." She got to her feet and left him, going to where they were and stopping in front of the barrier. "What did you find?"

Tony turned to Ziva.

Ziva, who was staring at Chloe's lips, began speaking, although her words weren't getting through to them due to the sound barrier.

Chloe tilted her head and nodded. "I expected as much." She placed her hands to her hips. "One of those girls is a murderer, I'm sure of that, but I found some herbs inside of the victim as well that-get a subpoena ready for me when I get out of there. I need to go and check the whole institution, but especially the church and garden."

Ziva nodded and mouthed something.

"Don't worry. Go on." Chloe sounded embarrassed.

Tony mouthed something.

Chloe grumbled. "Will you just  _go_  already?"

Ziva snorted and grabbed Tony, pulling him away with her.

"I'm surprised my father hasn't come as yet." Chloe turned to face Peter, a small smirk on her face. "He obviously knows I'm safe in here though, and I  _have_  been asking him to give me space, especially when I'm on a case."

Peter stared at the girl bathed under the moonlight and cleared his throat as he gazed away. "So, what was that all about? The church and garden?"

"Oh! Right! I never vocalized what I was thinking!" Chloe slapped her face, embarrassment clear. "I think they're going to find some material that is going to help me prove that this wasn't just some random killing, or even a crime of passion. It was an initiation, a sacrifice."

Peter's eyes widened. "A  _sacrifice_?"

"The herbs I found inside the body are common Aztec herbs which the priests would use on the intended sacrificial victims. They served to disorient and give hallucinations to the victim, and kept them more sedate. They are also, though, herbs that some people put in their food, and wouldn't show up in a toxicology report." She placed her hands on her hips, grin broad. "I think that this guy was the girl's sacrificial initiation."

"Into  _what_?" Peter was, once again, fully fascinated.

"What do you know of the Nagual?"

"I'm thinking you're not talking about the school." He frowned.

She nodded. "According to Mesoamerican folklore, a Nagual is a person who can magically transform into an animal. The most common transformation recorded are into a donkey, turkey, or a dog, but there were other animals a person could become, such as a jaguar or a puma."

Peter's eyes widened. "You think the school is teaching these girls to become Naguals, and that successful transformation, as well as killing, are a part of a ritual they perform to prove that they are ready to graduate from the institution."

She stared at him in shock, in clear bewilderment, before that blinding smile was back and she nodded rapidly. " _Yes_. That's what I'm saying!"

"And you plan on going to confront these things?" He couldn't believe it, remembering her order to get her a subpoena. "They'll change and tear you apart!"

She merely gave him a sly little smile and shook her head. "I'm hungry. You hungry? I packed sandwiches. Let's go eat."

Peter watched her, unable to understand the girl at all, and yet a small smile tilted his lips as he took in a deep breath and followed after her.

* * *

"And then I met the sheik and he-." Peter's smile was contagious as he told his newest story.

Chloe sat by the campfire feeling like she was off on a vacation and not working. Peter's voice was, surprisingly enough, very soothing. His different misadventures made for perfect fire-side tales and had her in stitches as she laughed and wiped at her eyes in amusement. He'd been hesitant at first, obviously not used to sharing parts of his life, but he'd slowly opened up to his topic. During his latest story he'd even started using a very impressive accent while recounting what the sheik had said.

She opened her mouth to comment on the sheik's naughty sense of humor, when suddenly a shock of pain jolted through her body and Chloe doubled over as she grabbed at her chest. Her heart raced manically, the world spun, and the blonde would've fallen face-first into the fire had Peter not grabbed her and yanked her to safety.

Images of being in a hospital room, of doctors and nurses rushing towards her, danced in front of her. She had no doubt that she was seeing through Lionel Luthor's eyes, that he was dying, and with him the remainder of their all-too-fragile bond was disintegrating.

The barrier boomed, jerking Chloe out of her visions, for her to see a creature with glowing red eyes in the darkness trying to get in.

Another boom, another set of glowing eyes.

And then another.

And another.

"What's going on?" Peter held her close and pulled her into his arms as he stood, his eyes on the creatures accumulating around the barrier, desperate to get in. "Are those things connected to the shadows?"

The barrier was the only thing that was keeping her from being taken by one of those things, it was the only thing protecting her from having another bond forcefully thrust onto her by some monster. She wondered, through the pain, if that was why it'd appeared in the first place. Maybe something or someone had known that Lionel Luthor would die and was protecting her in its own way by making her inaccessible to the creatures that could sense her bond dissolving to nothing.

A scream tore from her lips at the scratching pain from within, and the creatures outside the boundary reacted to that sound, growing more desperate as they clawed and attacked the boundary with all their might.

Peter backed away, his eyes narrowed.

Chloe hid her face in his chest and sobbed as her blood seemed to boil.

"Chloe?" He looked down at her. "Jesus! You're burning up!"

Chloe could only cry, but as the tears slid down her cheeks they evaporated with the heat.

"It's the bond, isn't it?" Peter was, as always, exceptionally bright. "Lionel's dying, isn't he?"

She managed a nod as she clutched tightly to his shirt and grit her teeth through her scream.

"Will you die?" His voice was urgent.

She couldn't answer, stars dancing before her vision as she fought to stay conscious while images of Lionel's suffering joined with her own. The images interchanged with her own vision that she grew disoriented and confused as to which was actually  _her_  vision and which were  _his_.

Suddenly lips descended onto hers, and the shock bolted her out of her disorientation. Her eyes were wide on Peter as he finally pulled away and looked down at her.

"Temporary, right?" He whispered, gaze intense. "This will save your life and you'll pay my debt. But it'll be  _temporary_ , right?"

She nodded quickly.

He took in a deep breath. "What do I do?"

She gritted through the pain. "The tent."

Peter licked his lips, surprisingly enough nervous, before he nodded and began moving them towards the tent. He slipped inside through the flap and then rested her on the sleeping bag on the ground before he turned back and closed the flap. He hesitated with his back to her and his hands on the zipper before he took in a deep breath and turned towards her as he yanked off his jacket and then his shirt. "I'll be gentle," he promised. "This won't be like what you went through the last time."

The fact that he'd not only remembered that but was worrying about it made Chloe smile through the pain. "It already is." She reached her trembling arms out towards him.

Peter stared down at her before he followed her down.

* * *

She slept peacefully, her head rested on the crook of his arm and her arm curled around his chest.

Peter had had all sorts of sex during his life, but damn it, he'd never had sex with a glowing girl before. She'd been almost on fire as he'd made love to her, the man trying to be as tender as he could considering the horror she'd had to go through, and while there were moments of fear and uncertainty in her eyes, he liked to feel that he'd managed to soothe them.

A sigh escaped his lips as he looked up at the tent's ceiling. The sounds of the creatures had died down to nothing once the bond had been sealed, and it'd been hours since he'd heard anything but the wind. A part of him had still doubted her story until the moment those things came for her, and he realized that if he didn't do it, one of those things would, and it would be  _his_  fault that this girl was bound to some monster. He'd made the decision to take a leap of faith and to, for once, be the knight in shining armor who saved the damsel in distress. It wasn't a role he was used to, but he hadn't found any other way out of this.

Anyway, he'd have his debts paid, so that didn't mean that he wasn't getting something out of this arrangement. He'd be free from any repercussions of his time in debt, and he'd stick around and help the girl until she found someone more suitable, someone who knew what he was getting into and who  _wanted_  this full-time. It was hard for Peter to imagine a guy who'd want that, though. Chloe's life seemed like an endless parade of the weird and the dangerous, and the girl herself was one meltdown away from total insanity. It would take a very strong man indeed to take her on permanently, to even  _want_  to do so.

Right now, even though he knew his deal was only temporary, Peter was doing his best not to doubt himself.

Chloe whimpered in her sleep and tightened her grip around him. She rubbed her cheek above his beating heart before settling once more.

Instinctively he tightened his grip around her and then frowned at himself, annoyed with his own reactions.

_Get a grip, Bishop. She isn't a lover. She's someone you're going to have to babysit - like you had to do with your father._

The reminder was sobering.

Peter raised his right hand and stared at the golden red tattoo around his ring-finger, wondering just what the hell he was doing and what he'd gotten himself into.

He turned his gaze to stare at the girl's sleeping face. He didn't do the right thing most of the time but this time it felt… he felt like this was something he was  _supposed_  to do.

He'd do this. He'd stay, he'd help her through her fits, and he'd help her find someone to replace him.

Peter nodded and failed to notice the way his hand caressed her hair.

Yeah. It wouldn't be easy to find someone reckless yet dependable enough to pull this off, but if anyone could help her find someone, it would be Peter.

Suddenly the flap unzipped and opened. Those two agents from before (Chloe had called them Ziva and Tony) stuck their heads into, the female's expression both happy and relieved, and the male a mixture between relieved and big-brother protective.

"Lionel Luthor died last night." Ziva raised an eyebrow at them and then smiled. "When we realized that, and that the barrier was down, we were worried about her." With that she slipped out of the tent. "Gotta stop Gibbs from coming here to check up on her."

Tony remained, eyebrow raised. "So, a word of forewarning: her father is terrifying." He then grinned. "Welcome to the family, little brother!" He opened his mouth to say more but only managed to let out a squeak when Ziva's hand shot in, grabbed him by his shirt collar, and yanked him out.

Peter sighed.

Chloe made a kitten-like sound in complaint to the noise.

Peter snorted in amusement at her.

Seriously. What had he gotten himself into?


End file.
